According to the Redseer estimates, the gaming industry in India is around $1.8 billion in 2019-2020. There were 400 million gamers where 80 million gamers were paid. According to research, the number of paid players will increase to 235 million. This shows us a bright future for the gaming industry in India, although I will go into that in detail.
In the past few years especially the last year, the gaming industry has made great leaps and bounds around the world. When the world comes to a halt or lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and everyone tries to fight the boredom in-home, online games, and TV turn to be a good partners. OTT platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix are also seeing an increase in subscribers. Since the modern games also give us the opportunity to chat and hang out with our friends attracted people mostly youths. Games like Among Us, Ludo and Call of Duty, or even PUBG. I also started playing PUBG (before the game was banned) to connect with my friends and play for fun.
Is this boom only because of the lockdowns? Will we see a pullback after the economy opens? What will be the future of the gaming industry in India?
Before talking about the future let’s look at the past
Let’s take a look at the video game industry sales data by type during the worldwide coronavirus pandemic through March 2020
According to Statista, the market value of the gaming industry in India is around 90 billion Indian rupees in the 2020 fiscal year.
| Financial Year | Value |
| FY 2008 | INR 7 billion |
| FY 2009 | INR 8 billion |
| FY 2010 | INR 10 billion |
| FY 2011 | INR 13 billion |
| FY 2012 | INR 15.3 billion |
| FY 2013 | INR 19.2 billion |
| FY 2014 | INR 23.5 billion |
| FY 2015 | INR 24.5 billion |
| FY 2016 | INR 28 billion |
| FY 2017 | INR 32 billion |
| FY 2018 | INR 44 billion |
| FY 2019 | INR 62 billion |
| FY 2020 | INR 90 billion |
Of course, we can see a clear spike from FY219 to FY2020. But every year the value was increasing, which shows us the potential.
What will be the future of the gaming industry in India?
First of all, let’s continue the previous table where we saw the market value is 90 billion in FY 2020. Statista also provided an estimate till 2022.
| FY 2021 | INR 99 billion |
| FY 2022 | INR 143 billion |
Pavan Nanda, the Co-founder, and CEO of Winzo said in an interview, the current value of the Indian gaming industry will grow by 5 times. A study by Redseer shows that the number of paid gamers will increase from 80 million to 235 million by the end of 2025. With time large OTT players like Netflix are also increasing their interest in this industry.
Mobile users control 85% of the industry, followed by 11% PC users and 4% tablet users, and mobile devices can generate more revenue today. During PUBG’s peak season, around 34 million Indians played daily, according to the company.
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Those above-mentioned numbers are pretty fascinating but if you are thinking the reasons behind these estimations, are follows:-
- India is a huge market for different segments. With more and more mobile users and digital technology evolving, there is good scope and scope for the future of the gaming industry in India.
- India has the 5th largest economy in the world and is expected to be the most populous country in the world by 2025. With improved digital infrastructure, foreign companies are also getting more access to private capital, which enables start-ups and innovative companies to grow and thrive.
- So far this year, start-ups in India have raised $10 billion through initial public offerings, over the last three years. With an index like the NIFTY 50, more companies are also expected to focus on technology in areas such as e-commerce, the internet, and digital media.
- Of course, as more players and teams participate in a given game title, this is directly related to an increase in the number of spectators and spectators, which ultimately leads to a higher prize pool. We saw it in PUBG.
These are some significant factors that attract investors around the globe.
So far we’ve been talking more about the positives of the industry, I’d like to point out the issues that the industry, or mainly the Government has to focus on:
Issues lie ahead in the Future of the gaming industry in India-
Even though the Indian gaming community has boomed, but still it is not in a position to bring about a successful career for the majority of people. There are many reasons for this, including our prejudices as Indians. In Indian society, for the most part, there are people who are very cautious and haven’t been able to take up untraditional career opportunities as gamers or streamers, or even something other than doctors and engineers as a profession. Parents in India are deeply involved in decisions about their children’s lives and careers. But it’s not the case in the western world, there are mostly parents who don’t interfere and want their children to make life-changing decisions for themselves.
Another obstacle facing the Indian gaming community is the lack of a strong internet connection. The quality of the internet has improved many times since the Jio revolution in India, but the main focus is on improving the quality of mobile data, not Wi-Fi, which is almost a must for a smooth online gaming experience. Most households in India today do not have an active WiFi connection and rely on their mobile data for online activities. And recently we all have seen Indian telecom companies have increased their tariff rates.
Also to make it a big industry, need investors & that will come from a clear regulation. In the last year or so, we saw how companies were becoming more interested in mobile gaming especially I’m talking here about PUBG. Companies were starting to provide stipends to gamers and sponsoring the teams. But due to the sudden banned by the Indian Government creates a bit of trouble. Also, future investors are now thinking twice before investments like this. Though the Govt. had a specific reason to ban the application due to privacy issues and all because there are more than 70 applications from China that have been banned by the Govt.
Although we have seen a new version of PUBG known as BGMI, the question is, will it gain the same popularity as the previous versions?
Conclusion,
Despite having issues for several years India managed to grow the gaming industry maybe not like the US or other western countries. India needs to solve the issues that will bring more and more opportunities to the Indian talents or gaming talents. And hopefully, soon we will see it as a big industry. One more thing I would like to say is that it’s not only about gamers, games need development, marketing, etc. It will help in employment when developers, animators, and other people who aren’t gamers will also get the opportunity to jump early on the ship.
Thanks!! Let me know in the comment what’s your take on it…